We may never understand …

• what happened and why.
• why dogs whine on car rides when they're the ones who begged to go.
• the senseless violence.
• if love just happens or is planned.
• the ultimate action of this or that agent.
• the religious and philosophical significance of the Japanese flowering cherries.
• all the details.
• the principle of universal love.
• the private logic behind Judy's behavior.
• how we will be changed by our long travels.
• why others treat us unfairly.
• how we arrived at our present condition.
• the deeper story, yet we know there is one.

"And what of the dead?  I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead.  Are they not locked below ground in chambers smaller than mine was, in their millions of millions?  There is no category of human activity in which the dead do not outnumber the living many times over.  Most beautiful children are dead.  Most soldiers, most cowards.  The fairest women and the most learned men – all are dead.  Their bodies repose in caskets, in sarcophagi, beneath arches of rude stone, everywhere under the earth.  Their spirits haunt our minds, ears pressed to the bones of our foreheads.  Who can say how intently they listen as we speak, or for what word?" ―Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch

The truth is that …

• even granite changes over time.
• if it were easy, everyone would do it.
• life itself is music.
• I was never that girl in the hallway.
• learning to laugh at yourself can help you.
• there is no "right" age for being who you are.
• there are so few who know where Burma is.
• a journey is an extension of the human personality.
• our body is in many ways like a robot.
• none of us has reached that exalted position of perfection.
• mind and matter are complementary to each other.
• sometimes what is supposed to be observable is lost in our focus on the flame.
• there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else.
• your death would be something to fear only if you could survive it.
• teams often create negative synergy.
• it is okay for one or a few people to pee in a river, as the river's ecosystem can cope with that amount of pollution quite easily.
• the horse may be thirsty but not have the will to drink.
• everyone who trusted Jesus in the first century A.D. died.
• no one has a clue.
• love is the greatest thing upon this earth.
• there never is just one truth.

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

The best thing to do right now is to:

• get yourself a cookie
• proceed antisystematically and aphoristically, or lyrically, or musically
• keep together
• turn to page 8 and get an idea
• lay low for a bit and let the heat die down
• hold the nerves in, keep cool and let the fish take the line for a run
• bite the bullet and show up
• rest for a little bit
• keep quiet
• get away from the monkeys
• sit down, relax, have some lunch
• go for a swim
• build a fort
• give these people a chance
• get out there as quickly as possible
• just watch what he does
• learn how to cope on your own

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]

The thing to do is …

• once you've bloomed, hold on. 
• change the course.
• keep up your spirits in spite of everybody and everything.
• get rid of the poison while it is still only on the surface.
• just laugh it off.
• begin while the infestation is slight.
• go back to doing what you do best.
• accept this madness of yours as a basic fact.
• keep occupied.
• face the worst with serenity.
• heed them both.
• be forever losing yourself in the enjoyment of embracing life.
• find a house and wait for Santa.
• play this game simply for the pleasure of playing it.
• accept this fact and try to utilize it.
• start before it's too late.
• the thing that can be done.

[Tidbits gathered through the course of our research.  See the remarkable collection, entitled Bullet Lists.]